1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle component for cooling a traction battery of an at least partially electrically operated vehicle, and to a method for operating such a vehicle component.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art includes various vehicle components for cooling batteries of electric vehicles. For example, US 2011/0206948 discloses a battery for an electric vehicle having multiple battery blocks. Each battery block has a multiplicity of lined-up cells and a cooling plate through which a coolant flows. The cells of the block are arranged one behind the other on the cooling plate. The coolant is supplied at one side of the block, flows along a U-shaped loop and is discharged at the same side of the block. A problem of such cooling is however that the cooling action decreases with increasing number of cells that are passed through, giving rise to non-uniform cooling.
US 2014/0014420 A1 discloses a battery for an electric vehicle with plate-shaped separators between the cells. Each separator has multiple ventilation ducts. An air flow is generated for cooling the battery and is blown by a fan to the ventilation ducts of the separators via a duct that runs between the individual blocks.
US 2010/0285347 and US 2011/0183179 disclose batteries for electric vehicles. The batteries have battery blocks that are cooled by an air flow. The air flow is blown to the individual cells via a duct that run on the outer sides of opposite blocks. The cooling air then flows to a central air discharge duct via multiple ventilation ducts arranged between the cells. To ensure adequate cooling of those cells farther to the rear of the duct, a variation of the flow cross section of the duct is proposed so that adequate cooling air can flow to the rear cells.
By contrast, it is the object of the invention to provide improved cooling of a traction battery for an at least partially electrically operated vehicle.